Listening Prayer - Day 29
Listening Prayer
Day 29
Listening Prayer… Today is Day 29 in our 40 Day journey out of exile.
I live about a mile south of a freeway. I don't think much about it. I never hear it. But some days in the summer, if I sit outside and I'm quiet and think about it, there it is. I hear it. It's this constant hum in the background.
I hear a lot of things when I'm quiet. If I focus on bird calls I hear all kinds of birds I didn't even know were out there. That's what happens when you stop to listen: you hear things you don't normally hear.
Be Quiet and Listen
If you want to return from exile, it’s important to learn to be quiet and listen.
There are so many things to think about when you are walking the desert, far from where you ever imagined you'd be. You think about:
all the mistakes you made to cause you to end up in exile
all the people who did you wrong and the ways you hope they get theirs
all the worst case scenarios and how life will never be good again
all the Bible verses that you were "claiming" but didn't come to fruition
all the plans to take back your life and show people how no one can put you down
With all that going on in your mind, it's hard to be quiet.
Sometimes we call our obsessive thinking "prayer" because we direct a lot of our thinking at God. I'm not so sure it's prayer if it's just you venting without giving God equal time to speak back.
The Discipline of Silence
If you want to return from exile learn the discipline of silence. Turn off your obsessions. Stop judging yourself and/or others. Stop planning. Stop regretting. Just shut it all down and create space in your mind for new thoughts.
I read Henry Cloud say that 90% of our thoughts every day are the same as yesterday. We just keep rehashing them. We need to cease thinking to create space for new thoughts. Better thoughts.
Richard Rohr talks about silence as a form of prayer:
Prayer is largely just being silent: holding the tension instead of even talking it through, offering the moment instead of fixing it by words and ideas, loving reality as it is instead of understanding it fully. Prayer is commonly a willingness to say “I don’t know.” We must not push the river, we must just trust that we are already in the river, and God is the certain flow and current.
Sometimes we try too hard to fix our situation. We are desperate to gain back control. But maybe that's one of the big reasons you ended up in exile: God wanted to show you that you are not in control. He is.
Rohr continues to explain...
...the way of faith is not the way of efficiency. So much of life is just a matter of listening and waiting ...It is like carrying and growing a baby: women wait and trust and hopefully eat good food, and the baby is born.
To be told to "be quiet and listen" is almost offensive to people who expect a solution to every problem. I'm not saying there isn't a solution to your exile. I'm just saying that the solution to your exile probably isn't in your brain when you first end up in exile.
That's one reason you ended up there in the first place. So, make room for God to reveal new things to you. Before he can do that, create space through silence.
How good are you at silence and listening? What keeps you from it? What can you do to create that kind of space in your life?